Bender-Gestalt emotional indicators and acting-out behavior in young children.

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between 15 emotional indicators on the Bender-Gestalt Test and acting-out behavior in young children. The subjects were 93 children ranging in age from five to 12 years. Each was administered the Bender. A measure of each subject's overt acting-out behavior was then obtained by having teachers rate each student on a Behavioral Rating Scale. Subjects' records were then divided into groups on the basis of both sex and age. Results indicated that neither the total number of Bender indicators nor any of the individual Bender indicators were correlated significantly with total scores on the rating scale. Use of the Bender as a projective device to measure acting-out behavior was seriously questioned.     

Variations of Bender-Gestalt constriction and depression in adult psychiatric patients.

The present study explored variations of Bender-Gestalt constriction and their relation to depression. 20 Ss showing constriction of drawings on the upper half-page and 20 Ss showing constriction of drawings on the left half-page were compared with regard to MMPI Depression scores. No significant difference was found between these groups. However, when the constricted groups were combined and then compared with 40 Ss who did not show constriction of Bender drawings, the constricted group had significantly higher (p less than .05) MMPI Depression scores. Thus, variations in Bender constriction are not differently related to depression, but presence of constriction is an indicator. However, its rate of occurrence is so infrequent, appearing in only 5% of the records examined, that its clinical usefulness in the detection of depression is quite limited.     

Improving the concurrent validity of the Bender-Gestalt test

30 individuals diagnosed as showing Korsakoff's psychosis, 30 as paranoid schizophrenics and 30 as normal controls, each had the Bender-Gestalt test administered by four different methods. All four showed good concurrent validity. The so-called perfect method which requires the individual to compare his drawings on the standard administration with the Bender-Gestalt test cards and to redraw the design eliminating errors, showed some potential for improving the predictive validity of the Bender-Gestalt test.     

Keep 'Gestalt' in the name of the test: the curious name permutations of the Bender-Gestalt Test

The Bender-Gestalt Test is often referred to in the literature by several different names, or just as the Bender Test, without the term Gestalt. As a consequence, the figures of the test are frequently called Bender figures or Bender designs, terms which are unjustified and misleading because the figures have been taken from Wertheimer's classical study of Gestalt laws. In this article, I trace the beginnings of the name of the test and its curious permutations, and I advocate the retention of the term Gestalt in the name of the test for logical and historical reasons.     

Bender Gestalt signs as indicants of conceptual impulsivity.

Sixty children were individually administered the Matching Familiar Figures Test and the Bender Gestalt Test. The mean age of the subjects was 10 years, 11 months. A significant relationship was found between errors on the Bender Gestalt test and impulsivity. More specifically, increased or decreased loops (figure four or six), change in angulation, loops for circles and circles for dots or dots for circles were all significantly related to children's impulsivity.     

Relationship of visual motor development and academic performance of young children in Hong Kong assessed on the Bender-Gestalt test

This study compared the Qualitative Scoring System for the Modified Version of the Bender-Gestalt test and the Developmental Scoring System for the Bender-Gestalt test in predicting performance on the Standardized Attainment Test of young children in Hong Kong. The study was done in two phases. First, 748 middle class children ages 4 to 8 years from 6 kindergartens and 6 primary schools were given the Bender-Gestalt test individually in kindergarten and in groups for older children, respectively. Both scoring systems were used to measure the children's visual motor development. Second, among the participants' protocols, 257 Primary 1 to Primary 3 children ages 6 to 8 years were selected to compare the Qualitative Scoring System for the 6 designs of the Modified Version of the Bender-Gestalt test and the Developmental Scoring System for the 9 designs of the Bender-Gestalt test in predicting performance on the Standardized Attainment Test. Results indicated that the Qualitative Scoring System differentiates better than the Developmental Scoring System in evaluating visual-motor development among young Chinese children from Hong Kong. Results also indicated that the Qualitative Scoring System correlated significantly with achievement in Chinese and English at all three levels. Scores on the Developmental Scoring System correlated significantly with only marks for Primary 1 and Primary 2 Chinese.     

New studies of adults' responses to the Bender Gestalt

The Bender-Gestalt test originated in 1936 with Lauretta Bender for evaluating perceptual and motor development of children 4 to 11 yr. old. Koppitz (1964) developed a scoring system for the test. Lacks (1984) contributed normative data for testing adults. Seven studies since Lacks' which have contributed to normative data of adults' responses to the Bender-Gestalt are reviewed here.     

Bender-Gestalt developmental scores: predicting reading and mathematics achievement

This study examined the relative importance of perceptual-motor processes and intelligence in predicting reading and mathematics achievement of children of low birthweight. Subjects were two groups of 153 children, ages 6 to 12 years, of either low (3 lb. or below, n = 72) or normal birthweight (n = 81) who participated in a comparative study on sequelae of children of low birthweight. To examine the utility of the Bender-Gestalt test in predicting academic achievement, Bender developmental scores, WRAT reading and mathematics scores, and WISC-R Full Scale IQs from both groups were compared and then intercorrelated separately. The mean comparisons indicated that children of low birthweight scored significantly lower on both Bender scores and reading achievement and had lower IQs than those of normal birthweight. Bender scores also appeared to have more utility for predicting reading and mathematics achievement for children of low birthweight than for those of normal birthweight.     

DAPs of black and white juvenile incarcerates

Two groups of male juvenile incarcerates were separated on the basis of race, matched in terms of age, recidivism, and intelligence test scores, and given a human figure drawing task. Figures drawn were male and female. The drawings were scored on 14 emotional indicators. The results of the present study offer little consistent or conclusive support for the hypothesis that differences influenced by race can be found in the projective drawings of black and white subjects. The commonly held impressions that there are more incidences of neurotic or psychotic features in the projective tests of black subjects and that the projective drawings of black subjects are generally inferior to the projective drawings of white subjects were not supported by the present study.     

Size of human figure drawing and Goodenough-Harris scores of pediatric oncology patients: a pilot study

Human figure drawings of 12 pediatric oncology patients were significantly smaller in height, width, and area than were drawings of 12 school children and 12 pediatric general surgery patients paired for sex and age. The Goodenough-Harris scores of the cancer patients' drawings were also significantly lower than those of both school and general surgery groups. It is hypothesized that anxiety, lowered self-esteem, and the effects of chemotherapy contributed to these findings.     

The Rorschach in the Context of Performance-Based Personality Assessment

Twenty-eight normal and 28 learning disabled children were given the Bender-Gestalt Test under instructional sets of low (standard) attention or high attention. Results failed to support the hypothesis that high attention instructions would lead to differential recall performance of the diagnostic groups. Normal children produced better designs during recall than learning disabled children regardless of instructional set. The evidence suggests that standard Bender instructions should not be altered in an attempt to elicit recall performance differences.     

The Representation of the Body Self in Human Figure Drawings

The matching of 25 frontal drawings of the female human figure with 25 frontal photographs of the college women who drew the figures was attempted by 30 male graduate psychology students and 30 women religious graduate students of art. The drawings and photos were arranged in envelopes according to a balanced lattice design, and presented to each of the judges in different envelopes in an order determined by randomized latin squares. Both groups matched the drawings with the photographs of the same Ss at significantly higher than chance expectancy (p<.01). These findings suggest that this matching technique may be of some value in testing the hypothesis of objective body self projection in human figure drawings.     

HUMAN FIGURE DRAWINGS BY NORMAL AND PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN: DRAW-A-PERSON TEST

N ielsen , H elle H. Human figure drawings by normal and physically handicapped children. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1961, 2 , 129–138.—Cerebral palsied children (spastic hemiplegia and paraplegia) were compared with normal children on nineteen formal variables of Draw-a-Person Test. Contrary to prediction, no differences were found between the experimental and matched control group, but one variable (Extremities lacking) was scored more frequently on hemiplegic than on paraplegic children. A comparison of the two groups showed that a significantly larger number of spastic drawings than normal drawings had a Goodenough IQ that was more than 10 points lower than their Binet IQ. A clinical psychologist, with much experience of figure drawings, sorted the drawings better than chance, only informed about age and IQ of the subject.     

Bender Gestalt test performance as a predictor of differential reading performance

Sixty Ss (two groups of second graders, with differential reading skills and average or above intelligence, matched with regard to CA, IQ, and sex) were compared on Bender test performance. No significant differences were found for rotations, integrations, perseverations, sex, or number of errors on Designs A through 8. Although significant differences were found between groups for both Bender composite scores (p = <.05) and distortion errors (p = <.01), there was no significant difference in the number of students in each group above and below the mean Bender score for that age group.

Poor Bender performance was found as often for good readers as for poor ones. This strongly suggests that Bender performance should be used with extreme caution in predicting or diagnosing poor reading performance.     

A Re-evauation of Copied and Recalled Bender-Gestalt Reproductions

This study was designed to compare the copying and recall performances of the Bender-Gestalt of 80 psychiatric patients, falling into five diagnostic groups. To obtain a quantitative measure of the copying performance the Pascal and Suttell scoring system was utilized; however, lack of scoring items for design A and no really satisfactory recall scoring system led to a revised system which resulted in a significantly more discriminating system than Olin and Reznikoff's. Also the study yielded various quantitative and qualitative differences between the five diagnostic groups, the most significant being between the organic and the functional (schizophrenic, depressive, neurotic, and character disorder) sub-groups. Thus performance on the Bender, especially the quantitatively scored recall performance, can be used as a valid diagnostic instrument to differentiate organic from non-organic patients. Yet in each sub-group the various aspects of the Bender performance (copying score, recall score, and number of designs recalled) appeared to be interrelated, while the time element was found to be an independent factor which also did not help to differentiate the diagnostic groups. Performance on the various designs fell into a definite pattern, particularly on the recall phase.     

Rorschach Variables and Big Five Scales as Predictors of Military Training Completion: A Replication Study of the Selection of Candidates to the Naval Special Forces in Norway

Thirty-nine undergraduate male college students drew five figures — an automobile, a clothed male, a clothed female, a nude male, a nude female — while a continuous record of their GSR activation was obtained. Analysis of GSR data showed that activation differed significantly from the relatively neutral but equally difficult drawing (i.e., the automobile). Nude figure drawings differed significantly in GSR activation from clothed figure drawings. GSR responses of largest amplitude showed significant shifts from the largest responses occurring to secondary sexual bodily areas in the clothed drawings to primary sexual areas in the nude drawings. Only the clothed male and the nude male drawings differed significantly between groups judged different in psychosexual adjustment.     

Changes in Human Figure Drawings During Intensive Treatment

This article examines change in the human figure drawings (HFDs) of 32 seriously disturbed young adults during the course of intensive inpatient treatment. HFDs drawn at the time of admission were compared with HFDs obtained more than 1 year after intensive treatment began; both sets were scored on the Goodenough-Harris Scale (GH) and the Robins Balance-Tilt Scale (RBT). The findings indicate that the HFDs significantly improved over the course of treatment, but only for those patients judged introjective, not anaclitic. These findings are consistent with prior research on the same population that were based on analyses of clinical case records and Rorschach protocols (Blatt, Ford, Berman, Cook, & Meyer, 1988). Significant change in the HFDs over the course of treatment suggests that the HFDs provide a unique and independent dimension for assessing therapeutic change.     

Human figure drawings of adjudicated and nonadjudicated adolescents

We investigated differences between human figure drawings of adjudicated and nonadjudicated adolescents. In addition, the relationship between human figure drawings and crime category (person, property, other, none) was examined for the adjudicated adolescents. Subjects consisted of four groups of adolescents (n = 25 each): adjudicated males, adjudicated females, nonadjudicated males, and nonadjudicated females. Human figure drawings were obtained from all subjects; they were scored using a system that was developed for use with adolescents. Kruskal-Wallis one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were used to assess the effects of adjudication status and gender. There were 11 significant differences between adjudicated and nonadjudicated adolescents and 11 differences among the four groups. Results of Kruskal-Wallis ANOVAs also showed two significant differences among crime categories.     

Changes in human figure drawings during intensive treatment.

This article examines change in the human figure drawings (HFDs) of 32 seriously disturbed young adults during the course of intensive inpatient treatment. HFDs drawn at the time of admission were compared with HFDs obtained more than 1 year after intensive treatment began; both sets were scored on the Goodenough-Harris Scale (GH) and the Robins Balance-Tilt Scale (RBT). The findings indicate that the HFDs significantly improved over the course of treatment, but only for those patients judged introjective, not anaclitic. These findings are consistent with prior research on the same population that were based on analyses of clinical case records and Rorschach protocols (Blatt, Ford, Berman, Cook, & Meyer, 1988). Significant change in the HFDs over the course of treatment suggests that the HFDs provide a unique and independent dimension for assessing therapeutic change.